London Team

Master Mariner STCW II/2.1
Member of the Lloyd’s panel of Special Casualty Representatives (SCR)
Younger Brother of London Trinity House
Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute
Freeman of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners 

John is a master mariner having substantial experience in command and as a first class pilot in the UK. He has acted as a nautical assessor to the High Court of Hong Kong and given expert evidence in London Arbitrations and Court in Hong Kong, Canada, Indonesia and Israel, during criminal and civil cases. He has provided expert reports on collisions, groundings, unsafe ports and berths, use of tugs and manoeuvring issues, seaworthiness, cargo loss, shift and stowage, performance claims due to bad weather, personal injury and death, pollution incidents and fouling of submarine pipelines and cables.

As well as acting as SCR he has also attended a number of high profile and politically sensitive salvage and wreck removals in Europe, Canada, South America, China, Philippines and Indonesia. During these operations he has been heavily involved from the initial preparation of the tenders through the oil, pollutants and cargo removal and storage to attendance during the clearance of the wreck site.

John was also a consultant mariner, based in London, for a leading firm of international marine consultants which included establishing and running the Hong Kong office as director where he built up a busy base. After returning to London he resumed his former role becoming a director.

As a pilot on the River Humber in the UK, John has manoeuvred and anchored all types of vessels, including cape size and panamax bulk carriers and tankers through narrow channels to terminals in a river having a large tidal range and strong currents. Passage planning included the calculation of minimum depths for transit and under keel clearance, tug type and allocation followed by conducting vessels in and out of river berths and enclosed docks in all states of weather and tide. He has also undertaken pilotage of vessels over 300,000 tonnes deadweight to FPSOs and SPMs. 

Command experience includes ocean towage and salvage in West Africa and extensive towage and anchor handling in all sectors of the North Sea, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and West Africa. Tows included disabled vessels, semi-submersible and jack-up rigs and all types of barges for the offshore sector. These operations involved carrying out own pilotage in many modern and undeveloped ports in the regions of operation.

John was also a contracts manager for a dredging operator undertaking pre and post dredge surveys, during maintenance dredging projects in ports around the UK. This followed experience as a watch keeping officer trading worldwide on refrigerated cargo, general cargo carrying break bulk, container and bulk cargoes.

Class One Marine Engineer STCW III/2

Chartered Engineer and Chartered Marine Engineer

Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology

Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Chris is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology. Having served at sea and worked ashore in other technical roles, he first entered marine consultancy in 2008, and progressed to heading the UK marine engineering department of another leading marine consultancy. Chris joined Solis Marine Consultants in July 2021.

His surveying and consultancy experience includes main and auxiliary machinery failure and damage investigations, collision damages, bunker disputes, ship’s crane damages, fires and explosions, salvage and wreck removal. He applies a forensic, open-minded and balanced approach to his investigative work, with health, safety, environmental and human elements as other key considerations. Chris has attended mediation and given expert evidence at arbitration and in court.

At sea, he served on numerous cruise vessels, ro-ro’s, tugs and a dredger. He achieved his Class One Certificate of Competency (Motor) and has a broad experience of diesel, steam and diesel/steam electric propulsion systems and auxiliaries.

Other shore-based experience have included the commissioning of power generation and prime mover control systems, including gas turbines and dual fuel engines. He has also been involved in new-build, state-of-the-art environmental systems design, and in the development, trials and implementation of environmentally acceptable lubricants and hydraulic fluids.

Through his consultancy, he continues to be engaged with the environmental aspects of shipping, including through compliance surveys and other related matters, such as pollution investigations and discretionary claims.

Master Mariner STCW II/2.1

Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute

Lead Auditor (ISO 9001, ISM, ISPS)

Member of the Society of Consulting Marine Engineers and Ship Surveyors

Paul brings many years of experience as master of panamax, handymax, and handysize bulk carriers and ship management ashore. Cargo specialisation has included carriage of ores, coal, grain, steel products, timber and forestry products, container, cement, cars and trailers, project cargoes and heavy lifts.

Paul has given expert oral evidence in the High Courts of London and Hong Kong and during arbitration tribunals in London, Hong Kong and Singapore. He has also acted as a nautical assessor to the High Court of Hong Kong.

As a marine consultant, Paul has spent time in the London market as well as a number of years in Hong Kong as director of a busy office for an international firm of consultants. Instructions have taken him to all parts of Europe, Africa, Indian Sub-Continent and Asia for site attendances involving many types of marine incidents.

Paul has prepared expert reports and advice on issues relating to bulk and break-bulk cargoes including liquefaction incidents, unsafe port/berth claims and unseaworthiness. He has also investigated groundings, collisions, ISM, ISPS and navigation issues.

Paul has also carried out Hull and Machinery and condition surveys on a wide variety of vessel types.

John is a consultant marine engineer with over 50 years of experience gained at sea and ashore. A steam and motor chief engineer, he has also provided expert reports in a number of machinery claims and given expert evidence in arbitration.

John has carried out investigations on behalf of insurers and investigated breakdowns and equipment failure on all types of vessels.

His seagoing experience, from junior to chief engineer, was on general cargo, container vessels and chemical tankers. He then became an engineering superintendent of jack-up and semi-submersible offshore drilling units and drill ships, working out of Chile, Brazil, Singapore and the North Sea (UK).

John later became a surveyor and loss adjuster undertaking energy and offshore related claims for a fully owned subsidiary of The Salvage Association. More recently John has worked as a surveyor with the Salvage Association, renamed BMT Marine & Offshore Surveys which became part of the Braemar Technical Services group.

Mark is a senior maritime civil engineer who specialises in providing consultancy services to P&I Clubs, insurers, lawyers, ship owners and managers, port and terminal owners and operators.

Mark’s principal activities concern the inspection of damages to maritime and marine structures and mechanical handling equipment on a worldwide basis.  He provides advice on causation, the nature and extent of damage, methods of repair and quantum, review of business interruption and loss of use together with providing engineering expertise including liaison with contractors and co-ordination of repairs works. 

In addition to the investigation of damages to ports and harbours Mark has extensive experience of investigation of storm and other damages to marinas worldwide.

Mark has specialist experience in unsafe port and berth investigations and has prepared expert reports in respect of unsafe ports and berths for High Court and Arbitration proceedings and has given expert evidence in the High Court in London, the Appeal Court in Bergen, Norway and High Court in Cape Town, South Africa.

Mark also has specialist experience in seabed remediation following vessel groundings and wreck removals including preparation of the ITT, selection of contractors, contract negotiation and management and supervision of the works.

Since 2001, Mark has worked for international marine consultancies in senior positions. Prior to that, he gained more than a decade of specialist experience in the design and construction of major international multi-disciplinary projects such as ports and harbours, tank farms, oil import and export facilities, marinas, immersed tube road tunnels. Those operations also included design, site supervision and management.

His experience includes:

• Property and business interruption claims
• Suspended deck quays and jetties
• Mooring and berthing dolphins – rigid and flexible, multi or single (mono) pile
• Fenders, bollards and mechanical mooring equipment
• Sea and river walls – steel sheet piles, blockwork, concrete caissons
• Breakwaters – solid, rubble mound, caisson
• Pipelines
• Pipe-racks
• Quayside Loading / Unloading and Mechanical Handling Equipment
• Marine Loading Arms
• Ship to shore cranes
• Shiploaders and Conveyors
• Single Point and Conventional Buoy Moorings (SPM and CBM)
• Bridges, Ro-Ro Ramps and Linkspans
• Locks and Lock Gates
• Marina Damage involving Pontoons, catenary moorings, mooring piles, bridges, lock gates

Mark Ball’s services are provided by Integra Technical Services Limited.